The suspect went back inside, which prompted the police to look for a vantage point. When Echavez noticed them, he allegedly opened fire but missed.

Foiled

A gunshot rang out again after Espina returned fire and grazed the suspect’s body.

Echavez fired at the policemen again then tried to flee by breaking and jumping out of a window.

Police Officer 3 Ferdinand Pablo, however, caught up with him.

A shot sent Echavez to the ground, and he was rushed to the Talisay City District Hospital. He was later transferred and is now under hospital arrest in the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City.

His arrest Sunday stemmed from a warrant for unlawful possession of firearms, for which Echavez was first arrested in November last year.

Regional Trial Court branch 10 Judge Soliver Peras issued the warrant last February 3, after Echavez failed to show up in court. He had previously posted a bond.

Confiscated from his possession were a .45 pistol with three chamber-ready live ammunitions, a hand grenade, two cellular phones and a wallet.

Identified

Two empty shells fired from .45 pistols were recovered in the crime scene.

Echavez was tagged as the unmasked motorcycle-riding assailant of Virginia Sesbreño, the wife of lawyer Raul Sesbreño, by witnesses.

Last February 1, two men on a motorcycle peppered Virginia’s vehicle with bullets when their pickup stopped for a red light at the junction of Rabayan St. and the Cebu South Coastal Road in Barangay Cansojong, Talisay City.

Her death, along with that of 30-year-old Joshua Young and 51-year-old Soledad Epanto, were believed to be linked to a land dispute and demolition in Barangay Lawaan.

“We are now going after the mastermind or the principal by direct inducement,” said Talisay City Police Station Chief Eddie Recamara, after Echavez’s arrest.

A cross-matching examination will be conducted on the recovered items to find out if the firearm seized from Echavez was the same one used in the ambush.

Complaints

The cellular phones will also be examined.

Criminal complaints for multiple murder will be filed against Echavez and his cohort-driver today, Monday, in the Talisay City Prosecutor’s Office.

The news about the arrest elated Peter Lim Sesbreño, the victim’s son.

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